Japan's Dairy market is forecast to register steady growth driven by its high disposable income levels. The country's Dairy market growth is currently constrained by declining milk consumption owing to low domestic production resulting in high prices. Nonetheless, Milk is the most valuable category followed by Yogurt with Yogurt also being the fastest growing category driven by Japanese consumers' preference for low fat and healthy diets.

Introduction and Landscape

Why was the report written?

This overview of the consumer and market dynamics of the Japanese Dairy Food sector allows new entrants and established players to gain rapid and comprehensive insight into the current state of the market and identify the key trends that will drive growth in the coming years.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?

Consumers prefer Dairy products that are ready-to-drink and can be consumed on-the-go. As such, demand for drinking Yogurt and ready-to-drink flavoured milk have grown at double the rate than liquid milk. Consumption of drinking milk is declining while demand for long-life packaged milk is fast substituting homogenized milk.

What are the key drivers behind recent market changes?

Busy lives and long working hours mean less time for sit down meals driving demand for on-the-go Dairy products. Declining birth rate implying fewer Japanese children have resulted in declining liquid milk consumption. The health benefits of fermented milk products are driving demand for Yogurt and low fat Dairy Food products.

What makes this report unique and essential to read?

This report brings together consumer insight and market data to provide a comprehensive brief of the Japanese Dairy Food sector. This allows for the rapid identification of key growth opportunities across major Dairy Food categories and their packaging.

Key growth categories are highlighted by analysing the market dynamics of major Dairy Food categories.

Market shares are provided for the leading brands and private label across Dairy Food categories.

An overview of packaging trends in the Japanese Dairy Food sector is provided, including primary packaging material and packaging type, packaging closures and outer packaging.

Key Market Issues

Japan is one of the fastest ageing nations among developed countries. Consumers above the age of 65 accounted for 25% of the population in 2013, while children aged 14 and under made up only 13% of the population. While the lower number of children has resulted in reduced consumption of liquid milk, growing share of aging population have led to increased demand for Yogurt with greater health benefits.

Milk price in Japan is one of the highest among the OECD countries. In recent times, Milk prices have spiralled upward, and this trend is expected to continue during 2013-2018 due to shrinking domestic production, the rise in input prices such as livestock fodder and fuel costs, and higher import prices, resulting from a tighter milk supply globally.

Dairy Food being a typically volume driven sector, retailers in different distribution channel often engage in competing offers and discounts to attract more customers. This has encouraged consumers to buy products through different channels to avail the best offer and maximize their value for money.

Incidence of large scale milk contamination in the country's leading dairy company and recent reports of radiation detected in milk following nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant have increased concerns over safety and health issues on dairy products.

Key Highlights

Japanese consumers prefer authentic and simple products when it comes to Dairy Food. This has driven rapid growth in the long-life packaged milk segment. Besides, convenience of aseptic milk - can be stored at room temperature, can be consumed on-the-go has resulted in fast substitution of homogenized milk in plastic pouches.

Dairy companies need to offer increased variety of highly differentiated products within a particular segment. For example in Liquid Milk alone, this includes as broad a range of products as homogenized milk, partial-skim milk, flavored milk, UHT milk, low-fat milk and lactose-free milk to cater to rapidly evolving consumer demand.

High levels of competition among the retailers has encouraged Japanese consumers to increase their expectations for better quality products at same or even lower price level.

Dairy companies in Japan have invested significantly in ultra-high temperature processing equipment that together with advanced multi-layered and aseptic packaging have enabled extended shelf-life of the dairy products.

Health and wellness trend has driven demand for fortified and functional milk and dairy products featuring high-protein and low-fat ingredients

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